Obadiah Made His Move

Ancient One's thoughts and actions were unknown to Sherlock. After passing through the Anywhere Door, Sherlock returned directly to his rented apartment and quietly waited for Obadiah to lose his mind.

The facts proved that Obadiah had not disappointed Sherlock.

After Sherlock delivered the evidence of Obadiah murdering his parents to Tony and tied Scavenger Company and Obadiah together in public opinion,

whether to control the backlash or to answer for Sherlock's parents, Tony began taking a series of actions against Obadiah.

The first thing he did was forcibly suspend Obadiah's activities within Stark Industries under the pretext of handling the public backlash, then begin reviewing and archiving all materials from the weapons manufacturing department.

Not only that, Tony had Pepper work with him to see whether they could find evidence on Obadiah's computer that he had secretly stolen Stark Industries' weapons blueprints, manufactured them himself, and smuggled them under Stark Industries' name.

In the end, Tony softened toward Obadiah once again.

The purpose of finding that evidence was merely to send Obadiah to prison, then let him live honestly as a wealthy man after he got out.

But for Obadiah, things were obviously not that simple.

Or rather, Obadiah viewed Tony's actions from an entirely different perspective.

To Obadiah, Tony's actions were nothing more than an attempt to kick him out of Stark Industries!

In Obadiah's own eyes, he had done countless dirty jobs for Stark Industries. He had managed the company for the Stark father and son for his entire life, even helping Stark Industries rise step by step from nothing to where it was today.

And now Tony wanted to discard him once he had outlived his usefulness and kick him out of Stark Industries' circle of interests?

Never mind whether Obadiah's wallet could sustain his extravagant lifestyle after leaving Stark Industries—the psychological blow alone was enough to make him unable to accept it!

Combined with the blows Sherlock had dealt him earlier, Obadiah, now beset by trouble, became increasingly unhinged.

The desire to kill Tony began to stir like a demon within him.

Obadiah truly was nowhere near as intelligent as Tony. Perhaps even Howard himself had never expected that after his sudden death, Obadiah would manage to coast into his current position through luck and his status as one of the old guard.

Thus, once the thought of killing Tony consumed his mind, the first solution Obadiah came up with was to seize control of the company through brute force like a reckless thug.

The plan was simply to use the Iron Monger armor he had built from Tony's leftovers to kill Tony first, then seize Stark Industries. In essence, it was like bringing people to snatch a company's official seal—stupid and reckless.

After all, the worst-case scenario was merely mutual destruction, with Stark Industries buried alongside him.

But if things went well, it would be the best possible outcome for Obadiah. Not only could he take control of Stark Industries, but he could even use its connections and resources to erase all the dirt hanging over him.

Like a gambler who had lost everything and gone red-eyed, Obadiah offered no resistance at all when faced with Tony's purge within Stark Industries and simply left the company.

But Tony clearly did not feel reassured by Obadiah's departure. After Obadiah left, Stark Industries began undergoing frenzied personnel changes.

Obadiah, meanwhile, did not sit idle after leaving Stark Industries. He immediately rushed to his weapons subcontracting factory and frantically urged the engineers to finish his Iron Monger armor.

But no matter how Obadiah pressured them or tempted them with money, some problems could not be solved with cash.

For example, energy.

The Iron Monger was unquestionably more complete than the Mark One Tony had originally built from scrap metal, but they had no idea what to do about the Micro Arc Reactor in its chest that served as its power source.

In the end, with no other choice, Obadiah took a desperate gamble and came up with an excuse for a plan!

He would steal Tony's Micro Arc Reactor!

After spending three days smuggling his Iron Monger from East Asia to the United States, Obadiah called Tony under the guise of apologizing and asked to meet him.

He chose Tony's mansion as the location.

Still holding onto hopes for Obadiah, Tony hesitated before ultimately agreeing.

Of course, the reason Tony agreed so readily was also his own arrogance. After all, Tony felt that as a "young man," dealing with an "old geezer" like Obadiah would be more than easy.

Not to mention he had the Mark armor to back him up.

Their meeting began peacefully. It was not until Obadiah pulled out a device the size of a USB drive that Tony realized something was wrong.

An infrasonic weapon. It was not lethal, but it could render someone unable to move!

When Tony collapsed to the floor because of his own overconfidence, Obadiah removed the Micro Arc Reactor from his chest with a sinister grin. Tony's eyes filled with despair and devastation.

He still could not believe that this man, who had taken the place of an elder in his life after all his elders had left, truly wanted to kill him with his own hands.

What made Tony feel even more hopeless was that when Obadiah saw his face growing paler and paler, he actually laughed without restraint. Staring at Tony with a savage expression, he cursed him.

"Tony Stark! You and your father are equally disgusting! Originally, I planned to kill you outright, take your Micro Arc Reactor, and use your armor to reclaim the Stark Industries that should have been mine.

But now I've changed my mind. I want you to feel, bit by bit in your despair, the shrapnel left in your body entering your heart. I want you to leave this world in the most painful way possible!

Do you know what the most wonderful part is? The great and wise Tony Stark will die without a sound! No one will discover you until your corpse has rotted away, until you have become nothing but bones!

Because I will send that bitch Pepper down to join you as well!"

After saying that, Obadiah pulled up something on his phone and showed it to Tony. On the screen, Pepper was sneaking around Obadiah's office, operating Obadiah's computer.

"Don't worry. Just remember to walk slowly on the road to the underworld and wait for the last lover who'll accompany you there! Hahahahahahahaha!"

After saying that, Obadiah left Tony's mansion laughing wildly.

It was not until Obadiah had left that Tony slowly regained control over his body. Enduring the agonizing pain in his chest, he used every ounce of strength to pull the distress beacon Sherlock had given him from his pocket.

When Tony finally managed to press the button on the beacon with his trembling fingers, a pink door that seemed to carry the light of hope appeared in his field of vision.

As the door opened, a flippant voice tinged with mockery sounded beside Tony's ear.

"Well, if it isn't the legendary genius armored man Tony Stark, who never needs to call for help. How did you end up this pathetic?"